RESEARCHES  AND  TRANSACTIONS 

THE  NEW  YORK  STATE  ARCHEOLOGICAL 
ASSOCIATION 


LEWIS  H.  MORGAN  CHAPTER 

ROCHESTER,  N,  Y. 

The 

New  York  Indian  Complex 
and  How  to  Solve  It 

BV 

ARTHUR  C.  PARKER 
Secretary  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Indian  Commission 
and  Arcfieologist  of  the  State  Museum 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  PHOTOGRAPHS 


ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 
1920 


NEW  YORK  STATS  ARCHEOLOGICAL  ASSOCIATION 
Morgan  Chapter,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

OFFICERS,  1920 

President  —  Alvin  H.  Dewey, 
440-444  Powers  Building. 

First  Vice  President  —  Mrs.  Dr.  Frank  F.  Dow, 
479  Park  Avenue. 

Second  Vice  President  —  E.  G.  Foster, 
36  Arvine  Park. 

Secretary  —  Walter  H.  Cassebeer, 
154  East  Avenue. 

Treasurer  —  Edward  D.  Putnam, 
Municipal  Museum,  Exposition  Park. 


■ 


ICtbrtja 

SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  hook 

Because  it  has  heen  said 
"Ever'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  hook." 


CM 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


ARTHUR  C.  PARKER 


Vol.  II. 


No.  1. 


RESEARCHES  AND  TRANSACTIONS 

OF 

THE  NEW  YORK  STATE  ARC HEO LOGICAL 
ASSOCIATION 


LEWIS  H.  MORGAN  CHAPTER 

ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 

The 

New  York  Indian  Complex 
and  How  to  Solve  It 

BY 

ARTHUR  C.  PARKER 
Secretary  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Indian  Commission 
and  Archeologist  of  the  State  Museum 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  PHOTOGRAPHS 

PUBLISHED  BY  LEWIS  H.  MORGAN  CHAPTER 
ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 
1920 


Press  of  C.  F,  Milliken  &  Co.,  Ca?iandaigua ,  N.  Y. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/newyorkindiancomOOpark 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 
AND  HOW  TO  SOLVE  IT* 

By  ARTHUR  C.  PARKER 
Secretary  of  the  Indian  Commission  and  Archeologist  of  the  State  Museum 

A  certain  English  critic  of  American  progress  recently  said, 
"  America  has  long  boasted  that  she  is  the  melting  pot  of  the 
world,  but  for  the  past  fifty  years  the  racial  elements  in  America 
have  refused  to  melt."  However  true  or  untrue  this  may  be  of 
the  immigrant  groups  from  Europe,  it  is  to  a  large  extent 
true  of  the  Indians  of  New  York  state. 

Within  our  state  there  are  more  than  5,000  tribal  Indians 
living  on  reservations.  While  to  all  outward  appearances  they 
are  civilized,  these  tribal  Indians  yet  retain  a  certain  tribal 
independence  and  are  self-governing.  The  Onondaga  nation  and 
the  Seneca  nation  of  Indians  go  so  far  as  to  assert  that  they 
still  live  on  their  ancestral  land  and  that  while  the  State  of 
New  York  has  grown  up  around  them  they  are  yet  not  in  the 
State  of  New  York.  Each  claims  to  be  a  nation  and  living 
under  the  protection  of  certain  treaty  rights  that  guarantee  to 
them  their  sovereignty.  Indeed  some  of  the  other  tribes  make 
this  claim  under  the  treaty  of  Canandaigua  of  1794,  proclaimed 
on  January  21st,  1795,  asserting  that  article  2  of  this  treaty 
promised : 

"The  United  States  acknowledges  the  lands  reserved  to  the  Oneida, 
Onondaga  and  Cayuga  nations  in  their  respective  treaties  with  the  State 
of  New  York,  and  called  their  reservations  to  be  their  property;  and 
the  United  States  will  never  claim  the  same  nor  disturb  them  or  either 
of  the  Six  Nations,  nor  their  Indian  friends  residing  thereon  and  united 
with  them,  in  the  free  use  and  enjoyment  thereof;  but  the  said 
reservations  shall  be  tiheirs  until  they  choose  to  sell  the  salme  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  who  have  the  right  to  purchase." 

Some  of  the  lands  reserved  have  been  sold,  many  acres 

have  gone  by  a  process  of  enforced  "choice".     The  Oneidas 

*  A  paper  prepared  especially  for  Morgan  Chapter,  in  response  to 
the  Chapter  resolution  on  Indian  citizenship. 


4  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

and  Cayugas  are  practically  landless  through  such  means.  The 
Indian  nations  finding  their  property  shrinking  made  a 
determined  stand  to  resist  further  sale.  The  Senecas  and 
Onondagas  have  been  especially  firm  toward  all  measures  by 
which  more  of  their  land  might  be  taken.  The  Senecas  learned 
a  bitter  lesson  through  the  fraudulent  " Treaty  of  Buffalo"  by 
which  they  lost  the  Buffalo  creek  reservation  in  1838,  and 
fought  so  bitterly  that  an  amended  treaty  was  made  in  1842 
by  which  they  retained  their  lands  on  the  Allegany  and 
Cattaraugus. 

The  contention  of  these  Indians,  who  belong  to  the  famous 
League  of  the  Iroquois  or  Six  Nations,  is  that  they  were  nations 
long  before  the  United  States  was  established  and  were  regarded 
as  independent  to  such  a  degree  that  they  made  treaties  with 
the  foreign  colonists  from  Europe,  who  later  established  the 
state  of  Xew  York  and  the  Fnited  States.  "Why  should  we 
give  up  our  government  which  in  the  days  of  the  white  invasion 
was  a  stable  and  powerful  one?"  say  the  Indians.  "If  the 
ITniterl  Stntes  desires  consolidation  lot  them  come  to  us  seeking 
admission  to  our  confederacy:  we  are  the  oldest  government 
and  we  still  exist  and  desire  to  exist." 

Here  then  is  a  problem  of  assimilation:  shall  the  white  man 
become  an  Iroquois  or  shall  the  Iroquois  become  as  white  men? 
It  is  an  example  of  a  racial  group  that  has  refused  to  melt. 

I.    How  effective  is  tribal  government  today? 

Each  of  the  Indian  tribes  has  some  form  of  government, 
but  not  one  retains  the  form  of  government  it  had  at  the  close 
of  the  Revolutionary  war.  The  old  League  of  the  Iroquois  had 
a  form  of  governmental  administration  that  was  nearly  ideal 
for  the  state  of  society  and  the  economic  conditions  with  which 
it  was  designed  to  cope.  But  soon  after  the  Revolutionary 
war  the  old  government  crumbled  and  was  seized  by  councils 
of  war  chiefs.  These  Indian  councils  became  extremely  corrupt 
and  incompetent.  The  Seneca  nation,  for  example,  had  in  1838 
at  least  70  chiefs  as  opposed  to  eight  sachems  under  the 
original  league  schedule.  There  were  still  sachems  who  formed 
a  sort  of  honorary  body  but  they  did  not  govern. 


6  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

In  1848  the  Seneca  nation  had  a  revolution  and  formed  a 
republic,  this  departure  being  a  result  of  the  corrupt  govern- 
ment by  chiefs  through  which  the  Senecas  lost  the  Buffalo 
creek  tract  and  nearly  lost  the  rest  of  their  possessions.  As 
a  result  the  Tonawanda  band  seceded  from  the  Seneca  nation 
and  by  paying  for  lands  once  their  own  they  secured  again  a 
homeland  and  retained  a  tribal  existence. 

Under  the  pressure  of  the  white  man  s  economic  and  social 
environment  these  Indians  have  undergone  a  great  change. 
Externally  they  are  "  whitemanized".  The  economic  factor 
governs  the  policy  of  their  governments  and  the  old  time  Indian 
ideals  have  mostly  vanished.  Several  investigations  and  several 
official  reports  show  that  the  tribal  governments  are  inefficient 
and  frequently  corrupt.  Indian  officials  are  astute  politicians, 
many  times  outwitting  their  white  competitors.  The  Indian 
courts  where  a  tribe  has  them  are  likewise  incompetent  and 
justice  is  said  to  be  hard  to  obtain  unless  the  seeker  is  on  the 
side  of  the  political  party  that  sits  as  a  court. 

None  of  the  tribes  has  jails  and  arrests  by  the  Indian 
marshal  are  conspicuous  by  their  infrequency.  The  United 
States  courts  take  cognizance  of  the  major  crimes  and  try  them, 
but  petty  crimes  on  reservations,  excepting  the  Oneidas  and 
possibly  the  St.  Regis,  go  unpunished,  save  by  the  feudal  revenge 
of  the  aggrieved  party.  To  some  extent  the  State  has  extended 
laws  over  the  reservations  and  has  sought  to  enforce  the 
"compulsory  school  attendance  law",  but  a  year  ago  the 
attorney  general's  office  rendered  an  opinion  that  the  State 
could  not  enforce  its  laws  over  the  tribal  Indians  living  under 
the  protection  of  the  treaty  of  1795.  The  State  departments 
were  thrown  into  confusion  for  the  departments  of  education, 
health  and  charities  had  expended  large  sums  for  the  improve- 
ment and  protection  of  the  Indians,  and  now  saw  themselves 
unable  to  enforce  their  laws.  The  attorney  general  ruled  that 
these  Indians  were  the  wards  of  the  federal  government  and 
not  of  the  state,  and  Deputy  Attorney  General  Jenks  in 
explaining  the  opinion  went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  he  believed 
that  all  laws  passed  by  the  State  legislature  and  seeking  to 
govern  certain  internal  affairs  of  the  several  tribes  were  invalid 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX  7 
and  without  force.  The  Indians  soon  learned  of  this  opinion, 
it  having  grown  out  of  an  alleged  violation  of  the  conservation 
law,  and  those  of  them  who  stood  for  independent  tribalism 
had  another  argument. 

Most  of  the  reservations  are  small  communities  so  far  as 
population  is  concerned  and  this  makes  effective  government 
difficult.  Most  members  of  a  tribe  know  each  other  personally 
and  have  their  personal  likes  and  aversions  toward  individuals. 
The  tribal  officers  can  scarcely  make  their  orders  impersonal.  In 
enforcing  tribal  lawT  they  have  no  feeling  that  a  higher  officer 
and  a  stronger  arm  of  the  government  is  back  of  them;  and 
in  failing  to  perform  their  duties  they  likewise  feel  no  prod  of 
this  arm.    Tribal  life  is  thereioie  largely  laissez  faire. 

It  is  true  that  the  reservations,  especially  those  of  the 
Senecas  and  the  Onondagas,  have  picturesque  features  and  that 
these  have  communities  of  non-Christian  Indians  who  worship 
the  Great  Spirit  in  ancient  form.  But  no  community  can  live 
because  of  picturesque  features  alone,  unless  that  feature  is 
commercialized.  A  ruined  castle  does  not  make  a  comfortable 
dwelling. 

II.  How  do  these  Indians  live? 

The  Seneca  nation  is  a  corporation  of  Indians  living  on 
the  Cattaraugus  and  Allegany  reservations  in  Erie,  Cattaraugus 
and  Chautauqua  counties.  The  Cattaraugus  tract  occupies  the 
Cattaraugus  valley  from  the  mouth  to  Gowanda,  and  the 
Allegany  tract  occupies  the  Allegany  valley  from  Carrolton  to 
Onoville.  The  city  of  Salamanca  lies  in  the  heart  of  this 
reservation,  and  five  other  villages  lie  on  leased  tracts.  The 
Seneca  nation  owns  the  Oil  Spring  reserve,  a  tract  of  640  acres. 
Altogether  the  Seneca  nation  occupies  52,000  acres  and  has  a 
population  of  2,550  souls.  Seneca  land  is  valuable  because  of 
the  oil  and  gas  found  beneath  it,  while  the  surface  to  a 
considerable  extent  embraces  some  of  the  best  agricultural  land 
in  the  state.  In  matters  of  the  reform  of  the  Seneca  government 
the  oil  and  gas  rights,  now  leased  by  several  corporations, 
constitute  the  veritable  "Ethiopian  in  the  fuel  pile".  Certain 
officials  of  the  nation  are  charged  with  doing  exactly  what  the 


8  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

oil  and  gas  operators  desire,  and  of  course  a  pecuniary  reward 
is  imputed. 

The  Tonawanda  band  of  Senecas  live  on  a  reservation 
purchased  by  them  and  situated  in  north-eastern  Erie  and 
north-western,  Genesee  counties,  along  Tonawanda  creek.  They 
have  7,549  acres  and  a  population  01  061.  Trie  land  is  cnieny 
agricultural. 

The  reservation  of  the  Tuscaroras,  who  originally  came 
from  North  Carolina,  embraces  6,249  acres  of  Niagara  county 
land,  and  there  are  475  Tuscaroras.  They  have  some  good 
agricultural  land  and  some  excellent  fruit  orchards.  They 
own  a  good  stone  quarry. 

The  Onondaga  reservation  or  ■"national  domain''  embraces 
6,1UU  acres  and  is  '"surrounded  by  Onondaga  county".  There 
are  about  575  Onondagas.  Their  land  is  good  in  the  valley  but 
the  hilly  uplands  are  of  little  worth.  They  own  a  stone  quarry 
which  is  leased  to  white  operators.  Many  of  the  men  who 
have  little  land  work  in  the  city  of  Syracuse  which  is  only 
seven  miles  distant,  or  two  miles  or  less  from  a  trolley  line. 

The  St.  Regis  reservation  lies  in  Franklin  and  St.  Lawrence 
counties  and  embraces  14,640  acres  and  has  a  population  of 
about  1,420  Indians.  Across  the  line  in  Canada  there  are  more 
than  a  thousand  of  these  Indians  holding  some  12,000  acres. 
The  St.  Regis  are  mostly  Mohawks,  but  have  some  Oneida  and 
Onondaga  admixture.  There  is  a  large  amount  of  white  blood 
in  this  tribe  and  most  of  its  members  are  less  than  half  Indian. 

The  so-called  Shinnecock  Indians  live  in  the  town  of 
Southhampton,  Suffolk  county,  Long  Island,  where  some  450 
acres  are  occupied.  The  original  Shinnecock  men  were  seamen 
and  whalers.  By  1876  nearly  all  the  males  had  perished  from 
shipwreck  and  other  marine  disasters.  A  settlement  of  negroes 
from  the  south  then  began  to  intermarry  with  the  Shinnecock 
women  until  today  the  so-called  tribe  shows  a  pronounced 
African  tinge.  These  people  do  a  little  gardening  but  are 
mostly  fishermen  and  day  laborers. 

None  of  the  Indians  in  this  state  live  by  Indian  pursuits. 
Their  economic  life  is  entirely  that  of  the  white  man  and  they 
depend  upon  the  white  man's  methods  to  supply  their  wants. 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX  9 

They  raise  little  or  no  wool,  and  their  farming,  dairying,  and 
to  some  extent  poultry  keeping,  forms  the  bulk  of  their 
production.  The  St.  Regis  to  some  degree  are  makers  of  snow 
shoes,  lacrosse  sticks  and  baskets.  Nearly  all  the  tribes  have 
a  few  basket  makers  and  bead  workers.  Many  of  the  Indian 
men  and  some  Indian  women  work  in  factories,  dairies,  canneries, 
shops  and  stores.  The  Indian  is  not  naturally  a  farmer  to  any 
greater  degree  than  his  white  neighbor,  but  chooses  his 
occupation  according  to  his  taste.  A  considerable  number 
work  for  the  railroads,  some  of  them  in  offices.  The  Iroquois 
have  produced  some  doctors,  lawyers,  engineers,  clergymen  and 
teachers  as  well  as  a  few  excellent  business  experts,  but  these 
are  not  numerous. 

Indian  homes  and  farms  are  like  those  of  rural  whites,  but 
many  dwellings  are  yet  of  logs  and  some  are  mere  shacks.  To 
the  contrary  there  are  some  fine  houses  furnished  with  many 
modern  conveniences.  Some  Indian  farmers  also  have  many 
kinds  of  machinery  and  modern  devices  for  dairying.  The 
tendency  of  the  Indian  economically  and  socially  is  toward  the 
white  man's  ideal  of  things. 

The  old  and  conservative  Indians  who  retain  their  ancient 
beliefs  and  who  have  resisted  the  advancements  of  education 
control  about  one  fifth  the  population  of  the  Senecas  and 
Tonawandas.  But  even  these  are  dependent  on  the  products 
of  civilization  and  aspire  to  the  white  man's  goods. 


Typical  log  cabin  home  of  the  non-Christian  Indians. 


10 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 


It  is  thus  seen  that  our  State  Indians  have  no  economic 
separateness  but  are  a  part  of  our  economic  system.  They  are 
out  of  adjustment  to  it  only  because  they  seek  to  retain  certain 
forms  of  tribalism,  and  tribal  custom.  Their  greatest  drawback 
is  ignorance  and  the  tyranny  of  tribal  precedents. 

III.   Do  these  Indians  own  in  fee  their  land? 

In  a  decision  rendered  in  the  case  of  the  Seneca  nation 
versus  Christie,  (1891)  126  N.  Y.,  122,  27  N.  E.,  275  the  court 
said,  "The  fee  to  the  lands  on  Indian  reservations  is  in  the  State, 
subject  to  the  Indians'  right  of  occupation."  This  was  a  Seneca 
case,  but  in  the  recent  case  of  George  V.  Pierce,  (1914)  85  Misc. 
105,  148.  N.  Y.  S.,  230,  the  court  also  applied  this  decision  to  the 
Onondagas.  Said  the  court,  "The  fee  of  the  Onondaga 
reservation  is  in  the  State.  Over  it  the  State  has  the  exclusive 
right  of  preemption.  They  constitute  an  alien  nation,  not  a 
subject  one."  The  fee  of  the  Tonawanda  and  the  St.  Regis 
reservations  is  also  in  the  State,  but  unlike  other  Indians  the 
Tonawandas  hold  their  land  by  purchase. 

One  of  the  peculiar  conditions  governing  the  tenure  of  the 
lands  of  the  Seneca  nation  is  the  so-called  Ogden  land  claim. 
Before  the  colony  of  New  York  was  definitely  fixed,  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts,  in  accordance  with  the  customs  of  the  times 
laid  claim  to  the  lands  west  of  the  Genesee  river.  When  the 
war  of  the  Revolution  determined  that  a  new  country  should 
be  erected  from  the  several  states,  Massachusetts  gave  New  York 
the  sovereignty  over  the  western  New  York  land  so  claimed  but 
retained  the  preemptive  right,  subject  to  the  extinguishment  of 
the  Indian  title.  Later  Massachusetts  sold  this  right  to  Robert 
Morris  for  $1,000,000  and  Morris  sold  it,  or  lost  it  through 
mortgage,  to  the  Ogden  land  company.  The  lands  of  the  Seneca 
nation,  except  Oil  Spring,  and  a  part  of  the  Tuscarora  tract,  are 
under  this  Ogden  cloud.  The  Senecas  and  Tuscaroras  fear  that 
if  they  ever  become  citizens  through  the  abandonment  of  their 
tribal  government  the  Ogden  claimants  may  assert  owner- 
ship of  their  lands  and  expel  them.  The  courts  have  never 
definitely  said  what  the  value  or  extent  of  the  Ogden  claim  is, 
but  the  Ogdon  company  through  Charles  Applebe,  trustee, 
asked  $200,000  for  its  right  over  the  reservation  lands. 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX  11 

The  Ononclagas  claim  that  they  alone  own  their  land  and 
that  the  white  man  has  no  title  to  it  since  the  white  man  never 
owned  it.  "We  cannot  be  disturbed  in  our  possession  of  our 
ancestral  domain,"  they  vehemently  assert. 

IV.    How  does  tribal  life  react  upon  the  Indians? 

Tribalism  affects  the  Indians  of  this  state  in  various  ways, 
some  of  which  have  already  been  discussed.  In  the  first  instance 
it  keeps  them  as  a  special  people  who  are  not  subject  to  the 
responsibilities  of  citizens.  It  makes  them  a  "peculiar  people" 
who  are  exempt  from  the  duty  of  caring  for  themselves  entirely. 
Individuals  do  not  feel  their  full  social  or  civic  responsibility. 
Indians  cannot  be  sued  by  white  citizens.  Indians  do  not  pay 
taxes. 

They  feel  that  the  white  man  has  usurped  so  many  of  their 
s  rights  that  he  should  atone  for  his  wrongs  by  giving  to  the 
Indian  schools  and  churches,  orphanages  and  the  offices  of 
the  Charities  department.  They  want  the  white  man  to  build 
their  roads  and  bridges. 

Now  it  may  be  right  for  the  white  man  to  fulfill  his  promises 
to  the  Indians,  but  that  the  Indians  should  receive  these  benefits 
is  pauperizing  to  them.  It  places  the  Indian  in  the  attitude 
of  saying,  "Give  me  schools,  religion,  charity,  medical 
attendance,  annuities,  roads  and  gratuities, — I'll  take  these 
things  because  they  are  free,  and  treat  them  accordingly."  This 
system  denies  to  the  Indian  one  of  life's  greatest  rights — that 
of  having  an  active,  determining  part  in  supplying  himself 
with  the  requirements  of  civilization.  The  system  is  weakening 
and  degenerating.  It  has  made  the  "noble  red  man"  a  beggar. 
As  the  years  go  on  it  will  break  down  his  self  reliance  and 
replace  it  with  shrinking  fear. 

Even  now  many  Indians  fear  the  coming  of  citizenship 
and  seek  by  every  means  to  avoid  it.  They  fear  taxation  for 
fear  it  may  cause  them  to  lose  their  lands.  They  fear  the  keen 
competition  of  white  men  \vlio  may  come  to  live  near  them  as 
neighbors.  After  all,  it  is  only  an  instinctive  dread  of  a  native 
people  for  the  relentless  power  of  a  dominant  culture. 

The  Indian,  however,  has  as  great  capacity  as  his  white 
neighbor.     The  laziness  of  mind  that  comes  from  the  "take-it- 


12  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

easy"  reservation  life  inhibits  expansion.  "We  are  Indians," 
say  the  fearful,  "and  we  want  to  live  as  we  do.  It  is  the 
'  Indian  way '  and  is  best  for  us ;    we  are  happy. ' ' 

To  some  extent  the  Indian  school  system  has  been  at  fault, 
especially  the  education  afforded  by  the  government  schools. 
These  for  the  most  part  are  but  common  grammar  schools 
leading  but  little  above  the  eighth  grade.  The  Carlisle  school, 
though  in  foot  ball  rated  with  the  universities,  was  but  an 
elementary  school  with  a  trade  shop  addition.  An  Indian 
youth,  fooled  into  the  belief  that  he  had  acquired  an  education 
in  one  of  these  institutions,  soon  found  himself  ill  equipped  to 
meet  his  better  trained  white  competitor.  The  Indian  to  be 
rightly  trained  should  have  received  a  "white  man's  education" 
and  not  an  Indian  education  just  because  he  was  an  Indian, 
since  his  economic  life  was  to  be  in  a  white  man's  world. 

Indians  trained  properly  have  risen  to  considerable  heights 
in  the  business  and  professional  world,  but  they  have  not  usually 
been  Indians  who  had  only  an  "Indian  education"  or  who  lived 
on  reservations. 

Tribalism,  it  is  therefore  found,  diminishes  the  expansion 
of  capacity.  An  Indian  cannot  ordinarily  achieve  his  best 
in  the  tribal  state.  He  cannot  become  as  useful  a  factor  to 
humanity  in  the  tribal  state  as  in  the  citizen  state.  He  becomes 
ingrowing  and  static  instead  of  expanding  and  dynamic. 

Tribalism  in  civilization,  having  special  protection  and 
gratuities,  constitutes  a  socially  weak  spot  in  the  common  social 
fabric.  It  emphasizes  exemption.  As  a  result  Indians  are 
more  ignorant  than  the  surrounding  whites-,  they  are  not  as 
healthy-,  they  are  not  as  thrifty:  they  are  not  as  valuable  as 
contributing  factors  to  the  world's  progress:  they  are  a  menace 
to  themselves. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  an  Indian  tribe  should  be 
conserved  as  a  sort  of  menagerie  or  museum  wherein  the 
aborigines  may  be  allowed  to  rove  and  slumber  to  extinction, 
but  persons  who  thus  think  must  realize  that  Indians  must 
move  upward  in  the  scale  of  progress  as  must  every  race  that 
is  to  survive.  The  white  man  of  today  has  moved  upward  and 
away  from  his  cruder  life  in  the  acre  of  the  Druids,  and  the  white 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPL/EX  13 

man  should  give  the  Indian  this  right.  This  is  a  world  in  which 
economic  conditions  largely  govern.  Anything  that  places  the 
Indian  as  an  exception,  as  tribalism  does,  contributes  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Indian.  The  Indian  must  struggle  and  think 
in  a  modern  way  if  he  is  to  survive  as  a  virile  member  of  the 
human  race.  His  right  is  to  have  this  experience  of  struggling 
to  obtain  greater  heights. 

V.   How  did  the  white  man  acquire  New  York? 

The  white  European  claimed  sovereignty  over  New  York 
state  by  right  of  discovery.  The  British  claim  to  New  York 
after  the  extinguishment  of  the  Dutch  claim  was  simply  the 
sole  right  to  colonize  and  to  trade  with  the  Indians.  None 
of  the  English  grants  gave  the  grantee  the  right  to  take  the  soil 
by  conquest  but  only  through  an  extinguishment  of  the  Indian 
title  by  purchase  or  treaty.  When  the  Indians  sold  their 
lands  they  passed  to  the  colonists  and  to  the  crown  the  right  of 
governing  those  lands.  By  treaty  the  English  bound  the  Indians 
to  sell  only  to  them.  This  prevented  the  establishment  of  little 
colonial  provinces  staked  out  like  a  checker  board  and  under 
the  rule  of  various  sovereigns.  The  Indians  fully  understood 
that  once  they  parted  with  their  lands  they  could  rule  them  no 
longer.  Moreover  these  New  York  Indians  fully  understood 
what  rights  were  gained  and  lost  by  conquest.  The  New  York 
Iroquois  came  into  New  York  and  Canada  from  other  regions 
and  acquired  the  land  by  conquest  or  deliberate  occupation. 
They  destroyed  the  nationality  of  numerous  tribes  in  historical 
times  and  claimed  these  lands  and  the  right  to  sell  them  to 
the  whites. 

Some  of  the  Iroquois  tribes  were  allies  of  the  British  in  the 
Revolutionary  war  and  went  down  in  defeat  with  the  British. 
In  this  way  the  Mohawks  largely  lost  their  lands  and  hunting 
grounds.  Captain  Brant,  the  Mohawk  chief  and  principal 
leader,  fully  understood  the  consequences  of  the  defeat  of  his 
nation  as  the  ally  of  the  British.  As  his  people  had  gained  their 
land  by  conquest  so  they  lost  it  by  conquest.  The  whole  thing, 
though  unhappy,  was  in  full  accord  with  the  rules  of  warfare 
and  possession  as  the  Indians  understood  them. 


14  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

Now,  there  are  some  friends  of  the  Indian,  more  sentimental 
than  practical,  who  believe  that  our  Indians  were  deprived  of 
ineir  lands  entirely  by  fraud  or  confiscation.  To  a  certain 
extent  in  some  instances  this  may  be  true,  but  it  is  not  entirely 
true.  Where  the  Indians  sold  their  lands  for  small  sums  it  was 
because  the  boundless  tracts  of  land  in  colonial  times  were  worth 
little,  at  the  time.  There  is  a  vast  disparity  in  the  price  of  land 
when  unimproved  and  when  a  city  rises  upon  it.  It  is  the 
roadway,  the  buildings,  the  factories,  the  labor,  the  thought, 
the  railways  and  the  protection  afforded  by  community  life  and 
its  government  that  adds  the  hundred  thousand  per  cent,  to  the 
value  of  land  in  its  original  condition.  To  say  that  the  white 
man  of  today  should  make  a  readjustment  of  the  original  sale 
price  or  vacate  the  land  for  a  reoccupation  by  the  Indians  is 
not  logical.  Shall  the  people  of  the  British  Isles  repay  the 
ancient  Britons  and  their  descendants  for  the  lands  that  the 
^ngio-Saxons  acquired  by  conquest  /  Shall  the  Normans  now 
pay  the  Anglo-Saxons  for  the  land  they  took  and  governed/ 
Why  then  should  we  of  today  raise  the  question  of  an  unjust 
occupation  of  this  area  when  the  Indian  does  not  / 

VI.    How  did  the  Indian  become  a  ward? 

For  its  own  protection  the  United  States  bound  the  New 
York  Indian  nations,  and  others  elsewhere,  to  treaties  by  which 
the  Indian  nations  and  tribes  could  deal  solely  with  the  United 
States  and  its  people.  If  by  chance  some  foreign  nation  was  to 
be  dealt  with  this  should  be  done  through  the  United  States 
and  with  its  consent.  This  was  in  order  to  protect  the  United 
States. 

The  Indians  of  New  York,  and  elsewhere,  were  dealt  with  by 
treaty  so  long  as  they  were  powerful  in  arms  and  in  government 
and  able  to  protect  themselves.  When  they  became  comparative- 
ly small  and  unable  to  effectually  protect  their  internal  rights 
many  complications  arose  due  to  the  incursions  and  trespass  of 
the  white  settlers  and  also  due  to  greatly  changed  economic 
conditions. 

To  protect  the  Indians  from  the  gross  invasion  of  their 
rights  the  United  States  assumed  the  role  of  guardian,  gradually 
extending  its  offices  as  such.   In  the  case  of  the  United  States 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 


15 


v.  Kagama,  (1885)  118  U.  S.,  375,  6  S.  Ct.,  1109,  30  U.  S.  (L.  ed), 

228,  the  Court  ruled : 

"These  Indians  are  the  wards  of  the  nation.  They  are  communities 
uependent  on  the  United  States — dependent  for  their  political  rights. 
Tney  owe  no  allegiance  to  the  States  and  from  them  receive  no 
protection.  Because  of  the  local  ill-feeling,  the  people  of  the  States 
where  they  are  found,  are  often  their  deadliest  enemies.  From  their 
very  weakness  and  helplessness,  so  largely  due  to  the  course  of  dealing 
of  the  federal  government  with  them  and  the  treaties  in  which  it  has 
ueen  promised,  there  also  rises  the  duty  of  protection,  and  with  it  the 
power.  This  has  always  been  recognized  by  the  executive  and  by 
congress  and  by  this  court  whenever  the  question  has  arisen.  The 
power  of  the  general  government  over  these  remnants  of  a  race  once 
powerful,  now  weak  and  diminished,  in  numbers,  is  necessary  for  their 
protection,  as  well  as  to  the  safety  of  those  among  whom  they  dwell. 
It  must  exist  in  that  government,  because  it  has  never  existed  anywhere 
else,  because  the  theatre  of  its  existence  is  within  the  geographical 
limits  of  the  United  States,  because  it  has  never  been  denied,  and  because 
it  alone  can  enforce  its  laws  on  all  the  tribes." 

The  Six  Nations  of  Iroquois  entered  into  many  treaties  with 
the  English  and  acknowledged  that  they  had  placed  themselves 
under  the  protection  of  the  Duke  of  York.  This  "protection" 
with  the  weakening  of  the  political  power  of  the  Indians  and  the 
changes  in  government  has  ripened  on  the  part  of  the  dominant 
government,  the  United  States,  into  a  status  of  guardian  and 
ward.  Indeed  the  Indians  by  frequent  acknowledgment  have 
regarded  themselves  as  wards  and  sought  the  government  as 
their  guardian. 

VII.   What  will  be  the  ultimate  fate  of  these  tribes? 

1.  They  will  become  extinct  through  the  dissipation  of  their 
members  by  distribution  in  the  citizen  communities  or  hy  death, 

2.  They  will  become  absorbed  in  the  white  race  by  intermarriage, 

or 

3.  Eventually  become  citizens  of  the  commonwealth. 

1.  There  seems  no  immediate  likelihood  of  the  tribes 
becoming  extinct.  The  population  of  the  tribes  has  increased 
twenty  per  cent,  in  the  last  hundred  years,  or  from  4,538  in 
1820,  (N.  Y.  census)  to  6,046  in  1910  (U.  S.  census).  Certain 
tribal  members  enter  the  business  life  of  the  country,  but  most 
of  these  retain  a  residence  on  their  respective  reservations.  This 
is  not  dissipation. 

2.  There  is  more  or  less  intermarriage  between  the  whites 
and  the  Xew  York  Indians,  so  much  so  that  it  is  to  be  doubted 


16  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

that  the  Indian  blood  averages  as  much  as  75  per  cent.  now. 
This  dilution  will  continue  until,  if  the  tribes  retain  their  status, 
the  preponderance  of  blood  will  be  Anglo-Saxon. 

3.  The  policy  of  the  United  States  government  is  to  prepare 
the  Indians  for  citizenship  and  to  confer  citizenship  as  a  right 
when  individual  Indians  are  found  to  be  competent  in  our 
commercial  life.  Citizenship  is  an  inescapable  goal.  The  Indians 
of  this  State  some  day  will  be  citizens,  for  it  is  anomalous  that 
there  should  be  nations  within  the  nation  and  portions  of  the 
population  segregated  and  living  under  special  laws. 

VIII.   If,  then,  citizenship  is  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  Indians  of 
New  York,  what  barriers  interpose  to  prevent  the 
bestowal  of  citizenship? 

1.  Many  of  the  Indians  living  on  the  reservations  in  this 
State  desire  to  avoid  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship  as  long 
as  possible,  finding  it  easier  to  live  in  tribalism  than  in  citizen- 
ship. They  fear  the  loss  of  lands  through  the  accruement  of 
taxes  that  they  cannot  pay  and  to  the  quick  inrush  of  whites 
who  will  eagerly  buy  their  lands.  In  a  tribal  state  they  have 
a  refuge  with  their  fellow  tribesmen.  The  poor  and  the  landless 
thus  have  an  asylum.  Reservations  are  refuges  for  the 
incompetent  and  thriftless  who  may  live  on  the  energy  of  the 
thrifty  and  landholding  tribesmen. 

2.  Certain  treaties,  notably  that  of  1795,  pledge  to  the 
New  York  State  Indians  freedom  from  interference  and 
molestation.    The  treaties  do  not  affect  the  St.  Regis  tribe. 

3.  The  Ogden  land  claim  seems  to  be  a  lien  or  preemptive 
claim  upon  the  lands  of  the  Seneca  nation  and  a  portion  of  the 
Tuscaroras.  If  the  tribes  are  dissolved  and  citizenship  granted 
the  Ogden  claimants  will  assume  ownership  of  the  Indian  lands, 
but  this  claim  may  be  only  the  right  of  first  bid.  The  claim  has 
never  been  definitely  determined  though  it  has  been  before  the 
courts  several  times. 

4.  Certain  contracts  and  treaties  between  these  Indians 
and  the  State  and  federal  governments  promise  certain  annuities 
and  other  gratuities.    These  must  be  reckoned  with  and  satisfied. 

5.  If  citizenship  is  extended  without  protecting  former 
rights  the  Indians  may  lose  the  right  to  certain  claims  that  they 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX  17 

now  assert  against  the  State  and  Nation.  This  might  amount 
to  confiscation  without  recompense,  since  the  claims  are  in  the 
names  of  the  several  tribes  and  not  in  bodies  of  citizenized 
Indians. 

IX.    How  may  these  barriers  be  removed? 

1.  By  educating  these  Indians  in  the  meaning  of  citizen- 
ship and  proving  that  they  must  make  ready  for  it  as  an 
inescapable  event  that  is  not  far  off.  Tribalism  blinds  the 
Indians  to  their  real  destiny  and  part  in  the  common  struggle 
of  universal  humanity.  They  must  understand  that  every 
individual  and  aggregate  of  individuals  must  conform  to  the 
laws  of  moral,  economic  and  social  progress.  There  must  be  an 
intensive  child  and  adult  educational  drive. 

2.  By  trying  out  in  the  Supreme  court  the  validity  of  the 
Ogden  land  claim  and  by  paying  this  claim  if  found  to  be  just. 
If  found  merely  to  be  the  first  right  of  bid  and  not  a  title  in  fee 
or  a  sole  right  to  buy,  then  the  claim  will  be  without  prejudice. 

3.  By  showing  that  greatly  changed  conditions  among  the 
whites  and  especially  among  the  Indians  have  made  old  treaties 
and  tribalism  anomalous  in  the  present  state  of  progress.  The 
Indians  of  today  are  not  in  the  same  condition  that  their 
ancestors  were.  The  descendants  of  the  people  treated  with  by 
the  government  have  outgrown  the  special  forms  of  legal 
protection,  so  much  so  that  these  things  have  become  restraints 
to  their  progress  and  barriers  to  their  higher  rights. 

4.  By  capitalizing  all  treaty  and  trust  funds  and  by  paying 
out  these  moneys  pro-rata  to  each  person  entitled  to  receive  the 
same. 

5.  By  making  a  complete  and  final  roll  of  every  member  of 
a  tribe  and  every  other  person  who  by  descent  is  entitled  to 
receive  a  share  of  his  tribal  ancestors'  property  and  money. 
The  roll  should  be  held  open  for  a  period  during  which  time 
claimants  who  had  been  excluded  might  make  application  for 
enrollment  and  during  which  time  those  enrolled  but  not  entitled 
to  enrollment  might  be  excluded. 

6.  By  capitalizing  all  tribal  property,  except  land  for 
dwellings  and  agriculture,  and  selling  this  property,  giving  the 
Indians  the  first  and  preferential  bid,  then  distributing  the 


18  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

amount  realized  per  capita  to  enrolled  members  of  the  respective 
tribes. 

7.  By  causing  the  various  railroads  and  industries  located 
on  Indian  reservations  to  pay  an  assessed  amount  for  the  value 
of  the  lands  occupied  by  them  or  to  vacate  these  lands. 

8.  By  causing  the  various  villages  and  the  City  of 
Salamanca  located  on  Indian  lands  to  pay  into  the  Indian 
tribal  treasury  or  into  the  trust  fund  created,  sums  equivalent 
to  the  present  value  of  the  property  beld  by  them,  said  values 
to  be  determined  by  a  commission. 

0.  By  reserving  tbe  right  of  the  enrolled  members  of  tribes 
jointly  to  start  action  at  any  time  within  ten  years  after  the 
bestowal  of  citizenship,  and  at  any  time  before  this  end,  to 
recover  on  any  claim  against  individual  citizen,  corporation,  or 
the  State  or  federal  governments  and  the  people  thereof.  The 
bestowal  of  citizenship  must  not  prejudice  or  invalidate  any 
tribal  claim  to  things  of  value  in  which  the  tribe  has  an  interest 
or  title. 

10.  By  establishing  a  competency  commission  whereby  the 
money  and  property  of  minor  and  incompetent  Indians  might 
be  safeguarded. 

11.  By  giving  each  competent  Indian  the  deed  of  the  land 
he  now  holds  and  can  show  a  title  to,  or  other  right  of 
occupancy,  subject  of  course  to  the  opinion  of  the  courts  of  the 
State. 

12.  By  abolishing  all  tribal  courts  and  forms  of  tribal 
government. 

13.  By  extending  over  the  Indians  in  their  several 
communities  and  elsewhere  all  the  laws  of  the  State  and  the 
Nation. 

14.  By  extending  citizenship  and  the  right  of  franchise  to 
m11  competent  Indians. 

X.   What  precedents  have  we  for  such  action? 

The  United  States  governmenl  has  steadily  pursued  ;i  policy 
of  educating  Indians  for  citizenship.  Under  the  Dawes  general 
allotment  net  of  18*7  nil  Indians  except  those  of  New  York 
were  given  individual  holdings  of  their  tribal  land  and  a  trust 
patent,  which  after  the  expiration  of  twenty-five  years  would 


THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX  19 

give  the  Indian  or  his  heirs  full  title  with  the  right  to  sell. 

Allotted  Indians  were  regarded  as  citizens  and  enumerated  as 
"Indians  taxed". 

Legislation  grew  up  to  further  protect  the  allotted  Indian 
which  in  the  end  amounted  to  complex  restrictions.  The  Burke 
act  of  1906  deferred  citizenship  after  the  expiration  of  the  trust 
period.  Later,  about  1914,  the  department  of  the  interior 
organized  competency  commissions  to  determine  what  individual 
Indians  were  competent  to  receive  without  restriction  their  full 
property.  Congress  now  has  a  bill  pending  before  it.  (passed 
the  House  Jan.  14,  1920)  which  makes  all  Indians  citizens  but 
protects  their  holdings  due  them  from  their  former  tribal 
condition.  The  only  Indians  excepted  are  the  five  civilized 
tribes  of  Oklahoma  who  have  been  specially  provided  for 
already,  the  Osage  nation  with  its  rich  oil  fields  and  the  Seneca 
nation  of  New  York.  This  last  exception  was  made  because  of 
the  cloud  of  the  Ogden  land  claim  to  the  Seneca  domain. 

All  societies  and  associations  of  Indians  and  white  citizens 
interested  in  Indian  welfare  have  advised  education  toward 
citizenship.  Among  these  are  the  Indian  Rights  Association, 
the  National  Indian  Association,  the  Boston  Indian  Citizenship 
League,  the  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners,  the  Lake  Mohonk 
Conference,  the  Federated  Indian  Conference  of  Philadelphia, 
and  several  others. 

XI.    What  would  be  the  results  of  citizenship? 

Reservations  are  places  of  social  and  moral  stagnation. 
When  the  barriers  are  cut  and  the  normal  stream  of  civic 
responsibility  and  vigorous  citizenship  flows  into  and  through 
them  stagnation  will  cease.  Instead  of  lethargy  there  will  be 
an  awakening  that  will  stimulate  moral  energy.  The  release  of 
moral  energy  is  one  of  the  objects  of  civilization  and  citizenship. 

The  onward  march  of  progress  cannot  be  stopped  and  no 
social  group  can  hope  to  survive  as  a  healthy  one  that  does  not 
keep  pace  and  step. 

Without  doubt  citizenship  bestowed  upon  the  New  York 
Indians  would  be  a  bitter  experience  to  some.  Those  who  have 
refused  to  prepare  for  it  and  those  who  because  of  the 
degenerating    influence    of    tribalism    have    become  diseased 


20  THE  NEW  YORK  INDIAN  COMPLEX 

morally  and  physically  will  go  the  way  of  all  created  things 
that  have  been  arrested  in  development,  reverted  or  perverted. 
The  law  of  nature  is  that  the  unfit  shall  be  weeded  out  to  make 
room  for  the  energetic  and  competent,  Citizenship  for  the  New 
York  Indians  will  prevent  the  propagation  of  the  unfit  and  put 
a  premium  on  the  thrift  of  those  who  aspire.  Citizenship  will 
give  us  a  better  grade  of  Indians  more  nearly  like  the  Indians 
of  old  in  point  of  stamina  and  independence  of  character.  It 
will  make  the  descendant  of  the  first  American  of  old  the  right 
kind  of  American  today. 


An  oat  field  on  a  N.  Y.  Indian  reservation. 


THE  NEW  YORK  STATE  AROKEOLOGICAL  ASSOCIATION. 

Lewis  H.  Morgan  Chapter. 

The  object  of  this  Chapter  shall  be  to  promote  historical 
study  and  intelligent  research  covering  the  artifacts,  rites, 
customs,  beliefs  and  other  phases  of  the  lives  of  the  aboriginal 
occupants  of  New  York  State  up  to  and  including  contact  with 
the  whites;  to  preserve  the  mounds,  ruins  and  other  evidences 
of  these  people,  and  to  co-operate  with  the  State  Association  in 
effecting  a  wider  knowledge  of  New  York  State  Archeology, 
and  to  help  secure  legislation  for  needed  ends.  Also  to  main- 
tain sympathetic  appreciation  of  the  history  of  the  American 
Indians,  particularly  of  those  now  resident  in  New  York  State, 
to  the  end  that  all  of  their  ancient  wrongs  and  grievances  may 
be  righted  agreeably  to  their  just  desires  both  as  to  property 
and  citizenship. 

Also  to  publish  papers  covering  the  results  of  field  wrork  of 
members  or  other  matters  within  the  purview  of  the  Chapter. 

All  persons  interested  in  these  subjects  are  invited  to  become 
members  of  the  Association  or  of  the  local  Chapter  nearest  to 
them-.  ^  ' 

The  Association  and  its  Chapters  plan  to  issue  a  uniform 
series  of  transactions  and  researches  covering  all  fields  consistent 
with  the  objects  of  the  Association. 

All  members  of  the  Association  or  of  its  constituent  Chapters 
are  issued  a  membership  certificate  suitable  for  framing  and  a 
pocket  membership  card  serving  as  an  introduction  in  the  field 
where  collecting  is  contemplated. 

The  Association  is  approved  by  the  State  Education  Depart- 
ment, University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  is  working  in 
cooperation  with  the  State  Museum. 

Address  all  correspondence  to  Alvin  H.  Dewey,  Box  185, 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  or  Walter  IT.  Cassebeer,  236  Meigs  St.,  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  or  Dr.  Arthur  C.  Parker,  State  Museum,  Albany,  N.  Y. 


